I am incredibly impressed with both the Siemens announcement,...

I am incredibly impressed with both the Siemens announcement, and more importantly the construction strategy. Amongst the discussion, I would also add:

The fine detail is the FULL plant can still occur within these parameters, if full funding were to be secured. It is also now highly probable the full cost from a financing standpoint would be a bit less, as the contingency factored in would be "chunked up" in proportion with the staging. Which is to say if unknowns were to occur, they do so earlier and allow redress during the half size plant, rather than occurring at the end of a FULL build where no production is providing cashflow. This adds the OPTION of a 50% startup, and the 2nd half could be added at ANY time, WRT signing more offtakes. My bet is 2nd stage will be committed/commenced close to the 1st stage commissioning, but the build has got past the point of substantial de-risking.

I would also say it is inconceivable that this strategy has been concocted without knowledge of the funding players being talked to for the last couple of YEARS. With the MOU signed, and the ANSTO results still to be aired, but undoubtedly known in principle by the main players, things may flow quickly.

That said, I'm also not surprised with a pull back. "Buy on rumour, sell on news" springs to mind. It also means that information flow leak has been occurring somewhere. With the number of players involved, this is probably inevitable. Appearance of Sol pats and other majors is curious timing.... but ratifies this is the real deal.

Rising 200% in a short time must inevitably see profit taking. I remember posting something when hitting MC of $200m not that long ago.
Now the MC is 300m, and the 50%DZP price tag is 480m.
Suddenly it all looks the right order of magnitude, as opposed to 100m/1bn